Joe Rosenthal: Poor Eyesight But Great Vision

Photographer Joe Rosenthal had poor eyesight, and was never able to follow up on his hopes to join the U.S. Armed Forces, but he did get to contribute in his own way by being there to take the most famous picture possibly ever taken of American troops, capturing for eternity the courage and achievement of our troops in World War 2.

Rosenthal was there at Iwo Jima and took the iconic photo of the U.S. Marines planting and raising the American flag, at the top of a mountain where they had just defeated the Japanese troops in a terribly hard battle.

After his rejection from the military due to his eyesight, Joe Rosenthal become a photographer for the AP (Associated Press), and got assigned to be "embedded" as we say nowadays with the Marines.

This led to Rosenthal, who had such poor eyesight, being the one who gave us the clearest and most vivid vision of what our American troops achieved in that war. Just goes to show, there are many ways to be a hero, whether a little one or a big one.

Joe Rosenthal: Poor Eyesight But Great Vision
spiritus temporis

Joe Rosenthal (born October 9, 1911) was an American photographer, who received the Pulitzer Prize for his iconic World War II portrait of American troops raising the flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Rejected by the army as a photographer because of poor eyesight, Rosenthal joined the Associated Press and followed the Marines in the Pacific Theater of Operations during the war. His picture of five marines and a navy corpsman raising the flag on Mount Suribachi ("Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima") became one of the best known photographs of the war.

Joe Rosenthal: Poor Eyesight But Great Vision